Hidden treasures: Libraries that collect more than just books

Monday

If you want to borrow the new Stephen King thriller "Duma Key" in Hopedale, look on the shelf behind Joanna Kendall's sculpted reproduction of "The Pieta" at the Bancroft Memorial Library.

If you want to borrow the new Stephen King thriller "Duma Key" in Hopedale, look on the shelf behind Joanna Kendall's sculpted reproduction of "The Pieta" at the Bancroft Memorial Library.

Readers across the region won't need the Dewey Decimal System to find striking but often overlooked art that often speaks volumes about their library's patrons and history.

From Hopedale to Lexington, from Concord to Natick, visitors can appreciate museum quality art and rare historical artifacts in their local libraries.

Visitors to the Concord Free Public Library can view marble busts of the town's most famous authors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Bronson Alcott, or view rare original paintings by N.C. Wyeth.

If you like a good mystery, visit the Children's Room at the Morse Institute Library in Natick and try to figure out why a lovely stained glass window depicts a little beagle trotting beside Alice in Wonderland when she meets the March Hare.

In Hopedale, you don't even need a library card to enjoy the magnificent statue of "Hope" outside the library.

Sculpted from Italian Carrara marble by American artist Waldo Story, it depicts the mystical figure of "Hope" rising from a fountain. To protect it from pollution and acid rain, the statue is covered with a drop cloth throughout the winter and will soon be uncovered.

Director Merrily Sparling said the 110-year-old library itself is an architectural work of art.

Built from pink Milford granite and modeled after Merton College Chapel in Oxford, England, the library was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1995.

Town historian Dan Malloy pointed out portraits of the library's founder, Joseph Bancroft and his wife, Sylvia, for whom the building is named, hanging on the reading room wall over a fireplace.

Over the years, the library has acquired several outstanding statues and sculptures such as Emile Bruchon's bronze "Science and Progress" and a statue of a "Kneeling Woman" by an unknown artist. The library's reference room contains six oil portraits of town luminaries including Ebenezer and Anna Draper, among others.

"Inside and out," said Malloy, "you don't see many libraries like this one."

While librarians and directors are reluctant to generalize, they broadly agree that older libraries, often founded by visionary patrons, seem most likely to attract outstanding works of art.

That's certainly the case in Concord where William Munroe, a wealthy 19th century textile merchant, founded a public library that doubles as a community museum. "He was extraordinary," said Leslie P. Wilson, curator of Special Collections which owns and exhibits most of the library's outstanding art. "He was extremely forward-thinking about collecting art."

Built in 1873, the distinctive Victorian gothic library holds paintings, sculptures and historic documents and artifacts major museums would love to acquire.

Munroe had the foresight, she said, to establish the library as a two-part public and private entity with the town running the lending library and the Library Corporation owning and managing the valuable art collection.

"We have some knockout art. People come to Concord specifically to see it," she said. " We don't like to disappoint them. And it's free."

The library's collection features several sculptures by Daniel Chester French, the artist best known for his representation of a seated Abraham Lincoln in his namesake memorial in Washington, D.C.

Entering the Thoreau Reading Room, Wilson pointed out five original paintings from a set of 12 done by N.C. Wyeth to illustrate a book, "Men of Concord." Completed in the 1930s, Wyeth's paintings depict scenes related to Henry David Thoreau's life and love of nature around Concord. "There are national treasures here," said Wilson.

The Cary Memorial Library in Lexington displays numerous works of art and historical artifacts reflecting the town's rich history.

Library Director Connie Rawson said the best known work is likely Lassell Ripley's 64-foot-wide mural "Four Seasons in Lexington" which stretches across the wall of the main desk area.

Several artworks and artifacts displayed in the Lexington Room reflect the town's reputation as a crucible of the American Revolution and the patriotism required to sustain it. Works by local artist Phillip B. Parsons include his dramatic painting "Battle of Fiske Hill" and "The Ride of Paul Revere Through Lexington."

The tattered battle flag of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington hangs prominently on the wall between paintings of the Revolutionary War.

In the Morse Institute Library in Natick, Martha Jones, the technical services supervisor, attributes the rich collection of art and artifacts to the prominent role the library has played in town affairs since its founding.

Established in 1862 by Mary Ann Morse and erected in 1874, it displays varied art, including gorgeous stain glass windows in the Peace Memorial which used to be its main entrance and in the second floor Henri Prunaret History Room.

On the second floor, visitors can see a needlepoint sampler made in 1836 by Morse as an 11-year-old that relates her family lineage through her parents to her siblings in fine stitches.

Jones pointed out one of the town's most curious artifacts, the last known fragment of the Eliot Oak, the tree under which in the 1650s the Rev. John Eliot converted to Christianity Native Americans who came to be called "Natick's Praying Indians."

The yard-long fragment is inexplicably shaped like Massachusetts with its long rectangular shape, sloped Atlantic coastline and protruding Cape Cod. Jones believes the state-like fragment wasn't cut by humans but simply followed its natural pattern.

In her second-floor office, archivist Gaylene Bordeaux is working on a homemade film, loaned to the library, which supposedly shows the doomed Zeppelin "Hindenburg" passing over Natick on May 3, 1937, just hours before it exploded while landing at the U.S. Naval Station in Lakehurst, N.J.

In the ground-floor Children's Reading Room, Jones explained one of the library's often-commented upon "mysteries."

A charming stained glass scene from "Alice in Wonderland" includes Alice, the March Hare and a beagle which is never mentioned in Lewis Carroll's 19th century fantasy.

Jones explained that the window was donated by longtime library trustee Prunaret who raised lemon beagles as a hobby.

The MetroWest Daily News

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